“How you guys feelin’ today? Good?” yelled a woman in printed leggings and a thick cotton headband to keep the flyaways from her ponytail out of her face.
The upbeat remix of a pop hit that had been playing in the background suddenly became several decibels louder as a group of students facing the instructor picked up their weights and began punching with them simultaneously, like a choreographed routine.
Missy MacPherson ’20 teaches high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and circuit classes as a part of St. Joe’s fitness program, Hawk-Fit. She is one of two St. Joe’s students with a passion for fitness who teach classes in a small room tucked away in the bottom of O’Pake Recreation Center.
MacPherson does the fast-paced exercises alongside her class. Twice a day, two days a week and once even with a broken toe, she offers encouragement to the serious, focused faces in the room: “And three…two…one…finish it out nice and strong!”
After playing five sports in high school and one at the beginning of college, then being forced to quit after an injury, MacPherson still wanted to pursue the love of fitness that sports had instilled in her. She was working as a fitness attendant in O’Pake when the head of Hawk-Fit, AnnMarie Catania, approached her about becoming an instructor. MacPherson said the decision was a no-brainer for her.
“The best part of my job is that I get to share my love of fitness with other people,” MacPherson said. “I’m forming relationships in the fitness world. Each week I get to see people progress and use heavier weights, and it’s just been really fun to watch and be a part of their fitness.”
MacPherson also said teaching keeps her accountable for her own fitness.
“It keeps me active, and I’m teaching them at the same time,” MacPherson said. “I get to do it with them, and it feels less like I’m telling them what to do.”
MacPherson’s dedication to fitness is not limited to her own classes. She said she does in-home workouts at least four to five times a week.
Madison Rojas ’20, a Zumba instructor for Hawk-Fit, said she also appreciates that her on-campus job allows her to make her health and fitness a priority, something that is hard for busy college students to commit to.
“If it wasn’t mandatory for me to show up because this is now my job, maybe I wouldn’t either,” Rojas said. “Sometimes I don’t want to go, but when I get there, I always have a good time and I always feel so good after.”
Having been a competitive dancer for 14 years before coming to college, Rojas said she wanted to find a way to continue dancing in college.
“I came to St. Joe’s, and there wasn’t really any dance that wasn’t the dance team,” Rojas said.
It was Rojas’ love of dance that inspired her to become a certified Zumba instructor and approach Catania about a job.
“I guess [Zumba and dance] kind of go hand-in-hand, but definitely dance has been the thing that has driven my fitness,” Rojas said. Being able to take it to Zumba has probably actually gotten me a bit more active than I was before.”
Both MacPherson and Rojas said that while being fitness instructors does not take up too much of their time, nor make it impossible to balance school and work, there is a lot of planning that goes into a fitness class.
MacPherson said she dedicates a lot of time to choosing playlists for class, working out to them herself first, as well as coming up with the exercises and writing them down in a notebook.
“I think that’s the thing I’m hardest on myself for because I want everyone to always really like my classes,” MacPherson said.
Victoria Moore ’21 and Kylee Arbeter ’20, two of Rojas’ and MacPherson’s “regulars,” try to attend Hawk-Fit classes every day and said they prefer student fitness instructors.
“It’s less intimidating to have kids our age do it,” Arbeter said. “We’re comfortable.”
Rojas said that type of comradery with students is the best part of her job.
“It evolves into other things, like getting dinner and stuff like that,” Rojas said. “If I did not teach Zumba and they didn’t come, we wouldn’t know each other. That’s our one connecting point.”
